Dead of Winter: Warring Colonies Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Cross-Compatible Cards
• Components
• New Components
• Collection List
• Game Setup
• Note: Optional Cards
• New Round Order
• Reveal Crisis
• Player Turns
  • Draw Crossroads Cards
  • Move Survivors
    • Moving to the Enemy Colony
    • Moving to a Full Location
  • Simultaneous Actions
  • Resolve Crossroads Cards
• New Player Turn Actions
  • Attack
    • Attacking a Zombie While at the Enemy Colony
  • Search
    • Making Noise While Searching
  • Add a Card to the Crisis
  • Pay Food
• Colony Combat
  • Combat at the Enemy Colony
  • Rolling for Combat
  • Combat Tracker
  • Survivor Death at the Enemy Colony
  • Example: Combat
• Colony Phase Steps
  • Add 2 Bullets
  • Add Zombies
  • Check Main Objective
  • Elect Colony Leaders
  • Bite Effect Spreads and Zombie Overruns
• Interpreting Card Text
• Winning and Losing the Game
• Variants
  • Lone Wolf
    • Lone Wolf Setup
    • Lone Wolf Rules
    • The Lone Wolf Den
    • Colony Combat
    • Lone Wolf Morale
    • Mission Cards
    • Winning the Game as the Lone Wolf
  • Quick Play
  • 11 Players
  • Random Items Module

Cross-Compatible Cards

All cards in the Dead of Winter: Warring Colonies expansion are marked with a bullets icon in the lower right corner to help distinguish them from cards included in other Dead of Winter sets.

All cards in the Dead of Winter: Warring Colonies expansion that are marked with the crosshairs symbol in the lower right corner cannot be used in a normal game of Dead of Winter. Those cards are only used when playing with the Warring Colonies variant.

Components

• 50 – Crossroads Cards
• 11 – Crisis Cards
• 4 – Main Objective Cards
• 10 – Player Reference Sheets
• 15 – Survivor Cards
• 43 – Random Item Cards
• 8 – Lone Wolf Secret Objectives
• 14 – Lone Wolf Mission Cards
• 10 – Tactics Cards
• 33 – Bullet Tokens
• 15 – Survivor Standees
• 1 – Lone Wolf Den Location
• 1 – Combat Tracker
• 1 – Lone Wolf Morale Tracker
• 1 – Rulebook
• 15 – Plastic Standee Stands
• 1 – Sand Timer
• 2 – Combat Dice

New Components

Combat Tracker: This is used during each combat to keep track of the combat strength.

Track Marker: This is used to track the difference in combat strength during each combat.

Tactics Cards: A 5-card set of tactics cards is used by each colony leader at the beginning of each combat.

Bullet Tokens: Bullet tokens are a new resource that can aid a colony in its fight against the enemy colony. The crisis card space is now the bullet supply. Bullet tokens are added to and removed from a colony's bullet supply through various game effects.

Sand Timer: Used during the simultaneous actions step of player turns.

Combat Dice: These are rolled at the end of every combat.

Lone Wolf Secret Objectives and Mission Cards: These are used by the Lone Wolf player when playing with an odd number of players.

Lone Wolf Den: This serves as the Lone Wolf player's colony when playing with an odd number of players.

Collection List

Collect the following from your Dead of Winter and Dead of Winter: The Long Night sets:

Dead of Winter

• Game Board
• All Zombie Standees
• All Survivor Standees
• All Dice
• All Survivor Cards
  • Optional: Remove Anneleigh Chan
• All Item Cards
• All Non-Betrayal Secret Objective Cards EXCEPT: Justice
• Optional: The Following Crossroad Cards: Abandoned, The Arctic King, Army, Book of the Dead, Brandon Kane, Christmas, Collapsing Barriers, Crazed Survivor, Creature Comforts, Dynamite, Forest Plum, Gabriel Diaz, Gambling, Harman Brooks, Heads Up, Helpless, Hunger, John Price, Lover's Quarrel, Maude, Mike Cho, Music, Old Divisions, Outbreak, Outsiders, Radio Signal, Rascals, Riot, Rod Miller, The Sunshine State, Thomas Heart, Toxic Waste, Supply Drop, Wavering Loyalties, Wounded Survivor

The Long Night

• Game Board
• All Location Boards except Raxxon and Bandit Hideout
• All Dice
• All Tokens, except those used by the Improvements Module
• All Zombie Standees
• All Survivor Standees
• All Survivor Cards
  • Optional: Remove Blue, Melissa Gupta, and Jamie Gilmour
• Only Starter Item Cards
• All Non-Betrayal Secret Objective Cards EXCEPT: Us or Them
• Optional: The Following Crossroad Cards: Back to School, Cole Winters, Derek Yoshida, Disturbed, Eric Parker, Fatima Rhodes, The Gunfighter, A Hair Raising Experience, Highway to Hell, Ice Fishing, Intervention, NICU, Oh What a Feeling…, Rats, Rocco Bellini, Toys, Unsanitary Conditions

Game Setup

The Warring Colonies variant is for play with 4-11 players. To set up a Warring Colonies variant of Dead of Winter complete the following steps in order.

1. Collect all of the items from your Dead of Winter and Dead of Winter: The Long Night sets that are on the Collection List on page 6. Then combine those items with the contents of this Warring Colonies set.

2. Place 2 colony boards, 6 location boards and the Graveyard as shown or as best accommodates your table. Then place the Combat Tracker so that the yellow and blue sides each face a colony.

3. Each player collects 1 of the new reference sheets included in the Warring Colonies set.

4. Players may decide which of the Warring Colonies main objectives they would like to play or pick 1 randomly. Place the chosen main objective card near the play area. Both colonies will share the same main objective.

5. Divide evenly into teams with each team sitting around a separate colony board. If there are an odd number of players, one player will be the Lone Wolf player. See the Lone Wolf section on page 14 for setup and details. See page 15 if playing with 11 players.

6. Shuffle the secret objective cards and deal 1 to each player. Return the rest to the box without looking at them. A player cannot reveal his secret objective card to other players.

   Note: There are no betrayal secret objectives in the Warring Colonies variant.

7. Shuffle the Warring Colonies crisis deck and place it near the play area.

8. Shuffle and make decks of the survivor and crossroad cards and place the decks off to the side of the play area.

9. Shuffle all of the starter item cards and deal 5 to each player. Return any remaining cards to the game box.

10. Separate the remaining item cards into separate decks according to their location. Add 5 of the random location item cards to each location deck. Shuffle each deck and place it on its corresponding location card.

Note: Optional Cards

We recommend including the listed optional crossroads cards, even though doing so increases setup time. These extra cards provide more variety and increase the "lifespan" of the new crossroads cards. But, to save you time, you may choose to use only the 50 crossroads cards from the Warring Colonies set. This will make your game a more thematically focused experience at the cost of more quickly revealing the surprises these cards have in store.

New Round Order

The round order in the Warring Colonies variant includes a few changes and a few new steps. The new round order is listed below, with new steps highlighted. Unless otherwise stated, these steps function the same as in a standard game of Dead of Winter.

Player Turns Phase

1. Reveal Crisis
2. Roll Action Dice
3. Player Turns

Colony Phase

1. Pay Food
2. Colony Combat
3. Check Waste
4. Resolve Crisis
5. Add 2 Bullets
6. Add Zombies
7. Check Main Objective
8. Move Round Tracker
9. Elect Colony Leader

Reveal Crisis

Reveal the top card from the Warring Colonies crisis deck. This crisis card is a joint crisis that players from both colonies will contribute cards towards preventing. This card's effect will take place during the colony phase if it is not prevented.

Player Turns

During the player turns step, starting with the colony leaders, a player from each colony will simultaneously take a turn. Simultaneous player turns then continue clockwise around each colony. Player turns are now broken into 4 parts that must be completed in order:

1. Draw Crossroads Cards
2. Move Survivors
3. Simultaneous Actions
4. Resolve Crossroads Cards

Draw Crossroads Cards

The teammate to the right of each active player draws a crossroads card for that player. So 2 crossroads cards will be drawn, 1 for each player taking a turn.

Note: If a crossroads card triggers, do not stop play. Resolving crossroads cards will now happen at the end of the players' turns.

Move Survivors

Survivor movement is resolved during this step. The player belonging to the colony with the lower morale (roll dice to break a tie) either moves 1 of his survivors or passes, and then the player at the colony with higher morale either moves 1 of his survivors or passes. Once a player has passed, that player can no longer move survivors. Players take turns moving survivors in this way until both players have passed. A player may not move a single survivor more than once during the same movement phase.

Note: Players may use the request action at any time during the move survivors step. Other actions can still only be performed during the simultaneous actions step.

Moving to the Enemy Colony

To move to the enemy colony, place the moving survivor on any empty zombie entrance space around the enemy colony.

Note: Survivors at the enemy colony may use their movement to move from one entrance to another, but must roll for exposure as normal.

Moving to a Full Location

A player may move a survivor to a location that is full. That player may either return a friendly survivor to their colony (do not roll for exposure) or may spend 1 bullet token to return an enemy survivor back to their colony or 2 bullet tokens if the survivor has a weapon equipped (do not roll for exposure).

Note: Players may NOT return enemy survivors belonging to the other active player.

Simultaneous Actions

After both active players have moved their survivors, they simultaneously complete all of the actions they want to take for their turns. The first player to finish taking her actions flips the 2 minute sand timer. The other player now has 2 minutes to complete all the remaining actions she wants to take for her turn. Any actions not completed by the end of that time are lost.

No simultaneous actions should conflict. If both players are performing searches with survivors at the same location, each player simply grabs whatever card is on top of the deck at the time when performing a search or making noise.

Note: If a bite symbol is rolled during the simultaneous actions step of a player's turn, place the bitten survivor on its side and continue play. The bitten survivor is no longer able to perform any action or use any ability. At the end of the simultaneous actions step, resolve all bite symbols and bite spreads as normal.

Resolve Crossroads Cards

Once the 2 minute timer has run out, or once both players have declared their turns complete, resolve any crossroad cards that were triggered during the players' turns, starting with the colony with higher morale (roll a die to break ties).

Note: If multiple survivors meet a crossroads card's trigger condition over the course of a turn, after the card is read, the active player decides which of those survivors to apply the effects of the card to.

New Player Turn Actions

The actions available to players in the Warring Colonies variant have changed. Some actions have been removed and others have been changed. The new list of actions is below. Unless otherwise stated, these actions function the same as in a standard game of Dead of Winter.

Note: The following actions from the standard game have been removed: Attack a Survivor, Attract, Move a Survivor, and Vote to Exile.

Actions that require an action die

• Attack (zombie)
• Search
• Barricade
• Clean Waste (3 cards)

Actions that do not require an action die

• Play a card
• Add a card to the Crisis
• Spend Food Tokens
• Request
• Hand Off

Note: Resolve a crossroads card at the end of a player's turn!

Attack

Note: In the Warring Colonies variant, a player may not use the attack action to attack another survivor.

Attacking a Zombie While at the Enemy Colony

A survivor that shares an enemy colony entrance with a zombie may attack that zombie.

Search

Making Noise While Searching

Only 1 noise can be made per search action.

Add a Card to the Crisis

A player from either colony may add 1 or more cards from her hand and/or cards that are equipped to survivors she controls to the currently revealed crisis card. These cards are played face up next to the revealed crisis and are public knowledge.

Note: Players may only add cards that match a symbol shown on the crisis. In the Warring Colonies variant, there is no way to "sabotage" the current crisis.

Pay Food

Enemy survivors at a colony entrance do NOT count toward the total number of survivors at that colony for the purpose of paying food.

Colony Combat

One at a time, for each location that contains survivors from both colonies, resolve a combat.

Resolve multiple combats in this order:

1. At the colony with lower morale (roll a die to break a tie).
2. At the remaining colony.
3. At all other locations in numerical order.

A combat takes place over 4 steps and represents a fight between the two colonies at a given location. In a combat, each colony leader will attempt to gain a greater total combat strength. To resolve combat at a location, each colony leader takes her colony's tactics cards and simultaneously performs the following 4 steps:

1. Select one of your 5 tactics cards and play it facedown. Simultaneously reveal each tactics card and resolve its effect.
2. Add 1 to your combat strength for each friendly survivor at this location. Then add 1 to your combat strength for each friendly survivor that has 1 or more weapon card equipped.
3. Collect all the bullet tokens from your colony's bullet supply and secretly choose a number of bullets to bid. Hold out your bullet bid in your fist and simultaneously reveal it with the opposing colony leader. Add 1 to combat strength for each bullet bid. Then discard all bullets that were bid and place the remaining bullets back in the supply.
4. Roll a combat die and immediately apply its effect (see Rolling for Combat below).

The leader with the higher total combat strength is the winner of this combat. The other leader is defeated. The defeated leader must distribute wounds among friendly survivors at that location equal to the difference in the two leader's total combat strength. This difference will be represented on the Combat Tracker.

Note: If a player's last remaining survivor would be killed during combat, wait until the end of the colony combat phase to draw a new survivor and add it to the game.

Combat at the Enemy Colony

After the colony combat phase, if there is at least 1 enemy survivor at a colony and no friendly survivors there (helpless survivors do not count), immediately decrease that colony's morale by 1 for each enemy survivor at that colony, regardless of if a combat happened there this round. In other words, don't leave your colony unguarded!

Rolling for Combat

During step 4 of a combat, each colony leader rolls a combat die and triggers the effect of the result.

Combat Die Results

• Starburst icon: Add this number to your combat strength for this combat.
• Crosshairs icon: Immediately place this number of wounds on a single enemy survivor in this combat.
• Biohazard icon: Add this number of zombies immediately after resolving any crosshairs wounds.

Combat Tracker

The combat tracker is an aid to help keep track of the current difference in combat values between colonies during a combat. The track marker for the combat tracker starts each combat at 0. Whenever a colony gains combat strength during a step of combat, move the track marker that many spaces in that colony's direction. See example on page 12.

Survivor Death at the Enemy Colony

If a survivor dies while at the enemy colony, any cards equipped to that survivor are given to the enemy colony leader who immediately equips them as he sees fit to any friendly survivors at his colony. If no friendly survivors are at the colony, these cards are removed from the game.

Example: Combat

The following example is reproduced from page 12 of the rulebook. Positions 1 through 6 refer to the numbered steps of the example.

1. Survivors from both colonies are at the grocery store. Colony leader A plays ALL IN (+3 combat) and colony leader B plays ON GUARD (+1 combat). This puts Colony A in the lead by 2 combat strength points.
2. Colony A has 1 survivor, The Enforcer, placed at the grocery store. Colony B has 2 survivors, Bernadette Wilson and Scott Wheeler, placed here. Colony A is still in the lead by 1.
3. Scott Wheeler is equipped with a 'shotgun' item card. He is the only one equipped with a weapon, tying the combat strength.
4. The bullet bid phase begins. Colony A bids 3 bullets and colony B bids 2 bullets. Colony A regains the lead by 1.
5. Both colony leaders roll a combat die. Colony leader A rolls a starburst (+3). Colony leader B rolls a crosshairs (1). Colony B's roll gives 1 wound to The Enforcer, but does not effect the final combat difference. Colony A wins the combat by 4.
6. The difference in combat strength being 4, colony leader B distributes 4 wounds among Bernadette and Scott, choosing to give each survivor 2 wounds.

Colony Phase Steps

Add 2 Bullets

Add 2 bullets to each colony's supply.

Add Zombies

Enemy survivors in colony entrance spaces DO count toward the total number of survivors at that colony for the purpose of adding zombies. If there are no empty spaces at an entrance that a zombie is being placed at and a survivor occupies one of those entrance spaces, instead of placing the zombie, place 1 wound on the survivor at that entrance with the lowest influence and return it to its colony (do not roll for exposure).

Check Main Objective

Both colonies simultaneously check for completion of the main objective. If one or both of the colonies have completed the Main Objective, the game is over.

Elect Colony Leaders

During the elect colony leader phase, each colony votes to decide their leader for the next round. Vote by counting to 3 and pointing at another player simultaneously. The player with the most votes is the new leader. Players cannot vote for themselves, nor can they abstain from the vote. If the vote is a tie, the current colony leader breaks the tie. Use the first player token to mark the colony leader.

Bite Effect Spreads and Zombie Overruns

Bite effect spreads and zombie overruns function the same as in a standard game of Dead of Winter, regardless of which colony a survivor belongs to.

Interpreting Card Text

Unless stated otherwise, when interpreting the card text for crossroads cards and secret objectives, the card text is referring only to a player's colony, or survivors or players belonging to that colony. It is not referring to both colonies jointly. For example:

• In play = In play and belonging to your colony
• On the board = On the board and belonging to your colony
• Any player = Any player belonging to your colony
• A survivor = A survivor belonging to your colony

Note: The following survivor abilities can only be used on or by friendly players or survivors: Anita Wallace, Eric Parker, Nadia Rivers, and Derek Yoshida.

Winning and Losing the Game

Just as in a standard game of Dead of Winter, there is only one way for a player to win. He must fully complete his secret objective. This usually includes having his colony complete the main objective.

If a colony's morale reaches 0, players from that colony have lost but continue playing until the next Check Main Objective step. If both colonies have 0 morale during the Check Main Objective step, both colonies lose. Once a colony's morale is at 0, it can not be raised.

Variants

Lone Wolf

In order to play with an odd number of players, players may use the Lone Wolf variant. In this variant, one player takes on the role of the Lone Wolf, a player who does not belong to either colony.

Cards and components in the Warring Colonies set marked with a wolf paw icon in the lower right corner are to be used only with the Lone Wolf variant.

Lone Wolf Setup

1. Decide which player will be the Lone Wolf.
2. Place the Lone Wolf Den location in front of the Lone Wolf player.
3. The Lone Wolf player randomly selects one of the 8 Lone Wolf secret objectives and follows the Setup instructions on that card.
4. Shuffle the Lone Wolf Mission Card deck and place it near the Lone Wolf Den.
5. When choosing survivors, the Lone Wolf player is always dealt 5 and chooses 3. Place the chosen starting survivors at the Lone Wolf Den.
6. Morale starts at 4.

Lone Wolf Rules

The Lone Wolf player's turn takes place first each round, before players have taken their simultaneous turns. The Lone Wolf player follows all normal Warring Colonies rules with the following exceptions:

• The Lone Wolf player has no time limit to complete his actions.
• Lone Wolf survivors can move to entrance spaces at both colonies.
• When a player spends a bullet to remove a Lone Wolf survivor from a full location, move that survivor to the Lone Wolf's Den (do not roll for exposure). If there are no available spaces in the Lone Wolf Den, the Lone Wolf player must move the survivor to a location of his choice.
• A Lone Wolf player can move a survivor to a full location, but he must spend an action die to return a survivor at this location to their colony (Returning a Lone Wolf survivor does not require an action die).
• The Lone Wolf player cannot collect bullets.
• If the Lone Wolf player adds a survivor to his following, it is placed at the Lone Wolf Den unless otherwise stated. Any helpless survivors are ignored. If there are no available spaces in the Lone Wolf Den, he places the new survivor at a location of his choice.
• The Lone Wolf player may contribute cards to the joint crisis, but is unaffected by any morale loss or gains from crisis effect.

The Lone Wolf Den

The Lone Wolf Den is home to the Lone Wolf survivors and acts as a simplified, single player version of a colony. There is a food supply, waste pile, and a morale track. Please note:

• Only Lone Wolf survivors can move to the Lone Wolf Den.
• No zombies can ever be added to the Lone Wolf Den.
• The Lone Wolf Den is considered a colony for Lone Wolf survivor abilities and crossroad cards.
• The Pay Food step for the Lone Wolf follows normal rules.
• The Check Waste step functions normally except that 1 morale is lost for every 5 item cards in the waste pile (instead of 10).

Colony Combat

If 1 or more Lone Wolf survivors are at a location where a combat is about to take place, the Lone Wolf player has to make a choice immediately before the combat.

He may:

1. Run away. Choose to remove all survivors from this location and return them one by one to the Lone Wolf Den, or a different location if the Lone Wolf Den is full (rolling for exposure as normal).
2. Participate in the combat. The Lone Wolf player chooses a colony to support. During this combat, all Lone Wolf survivors at this location act as if they were a part of the chosen colony.

Note: Colony leaders may distribute wounds to Lone Wolf survivors. If Lone Wolf survivors would retreat, they return to the Lone Wolf Den, or a different location if the Lone Wolf Den is full.

Lone Wolf Morale

Lone Wolf morale always starts at 4 and can increase up to 5. If morale ever reaches zero, the Lone Wolf player has lost and is removed from the game. The Lone Wolf player can increase morale by completing mission cards.

Mission Cards

The main impact the Lone Wolf player can have on a game is through the completion of mission cards. The Lone Wolf player starts with 3 mission cards, and whenever the Lone Wolf player completes a mission card, he immediately draws another one. Once per round, at the beginning of his turn, the Lone Wolf player may discard one mission card to draw a new one. Once the mission card pile is empty, he may no longer draw more cards.

Winning the Game as the Lone Wolf

The Lone Wolf player wins the game if his secret objective is completed at the end of the game.

Quick Play

This variant speeds up a game of Warring Colonies and adds an extra bit of frantic tension to each turn. When using quick play, players only have 2 minutes TOTAL to complete all actions during the simultaneous actions step of player turns. After both players have moved their survivors, flip the 2 minute sand timer. Any actions not completed by the end of that time are lost.

11 Players

This variant allows 11 players to play Warring Colonies (5 players at each colony and 1 Lone Wolf player). It plays exactly the same as regular Warring Colonies games, with the following exceptions:

• During setup, each player is dealt 4 starting items (instead of 5).
• The Lone Wolf player does not use a player reference sheet.

Random Items Module

The Random Items module is a simple and easy way to add even more variety to location item decks in standard games of Dead of Winter. To use the Random Items module in a standard game of Dead of Winter:

1. Remove all cards with the crosshairs symbol from the Random Items deck and then shuffle the Random Items deck.
2. Add 5 cards randomly to each location's item deck, and then shuffle those decks.